Mustard from the Colorado potato beetle

The Colorado potato beetle is the main enemy of potatoes and all gardeners. Such small bugs can destroy almost all potatoes in a matter of days. Manufacturers of chemicals promise to save the crop, but at the same time, these substances are very harmful to human health. Nevertheless, it is necessary to fight the beetles. In addition, it is very important to carry out timely prevention of beetles in the spring. All this can be done with the help of folk remedies. Over the years, our ancestors have tried various methods of pest control. Let’s listen to their experience and consider various folk remedies for the Colorado potato beetle on potatoes.

Fundamental rules

Many will agree that using chemicals is easier and faster. But, do not forget about the harm that they bring to our health. Many gardeners use only folk remedies to fight beetles. After all, what’s the point in saving the crop from pests, but poisoning yourself with chemistry. Fighting methods must be safe!

Since Colorado potato beetles have been living in our area for quite a long time, gardeners managed to come up with and test a large number of effective ways to deal with them. They made sure that these products were completely harmless to the environment and health.

It is important to follow three basic rules:

1. The weather during the processing of the bushes should be dry and calm.
2. The scorching sun reduces the strength of decoctions. It is better to use solutions in the evening.
3. It is necessary to process potatoes every week, otherwise the effectiveness of the procedures will greatly decrease.

Infusions of herbs to fight the beetle

Natural remedies can be prepared from common herbs. For example, wormwood, celandine, horsetail and dandelion are perfect. Infusions are prepared as follows:

1. Wormwood is crushed and placed in a container in such an amount that it occupies a third of a bucket or barrel. Then the container is completely filled with water. After 3 days, the infusion will need to be filtered and you can start spraying the beds from beetles.
2. The prepared and crushed celandine is placed in a saucepan and filled with water in the same proportion as in the first case. Then the celandine should be boiled for 15 minutes. Next, the solution is allowed to cool and diluted with water. To do this, pour half a liter of the prepared broth into 10 liters of water.
3. 200 grams of dandelion and horsetail are taken per bucket of water, the plants are crushed and placed in a container. Then the plants are filled with water. The infusion is boiled for 15 minutes, after which it is cooled and diluted. As in the previous case, for half a liter of such a decoction, 10 liters of water will be needed. Then the potatoes are processed from beetles.

It is necessary to start processing with such means immediately after the potatoes rise. The procedure is repeated every week, only in this case it will be possible to achieve the best result.

In addition to the plants listed above, you can use ordinary walnuts. For this, unripe fruits and leaves are suitable. To prepare the solution you will need:

• 1 kg of walnut leaves;
• 1 kg of chopped green fruits;
• 10 liters of boiling water.

All components are mixed and left for a week so that the mixture is infused. Then the infusion is filtered and used to spray potatoes from beetles.

Ash, mustard and other methods of dealing with the Colorado potato beetle

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Some substances that do an excellent job in the fight against bugs are always at our fingertips. Probably every housewife has vinegar, laundry soap and mustard. Let’s look at how you can make an excellent remedy against the Colorado potato beetle from such simple ingredients.

The following mixtures are most popular:

1. For the first preparation, you will need half a liter of vinegar, 100 grams of ordinary soda and 10 liters of water. The first step is to combine vinegar and soda. Then the mixture is poured with water and, immediately, they go to spray the area.
2. The following remedy is prepared on the basis of laundry soap. One bar of soap should be dissolved in 10 liters of water and added to the hot pepper mixture (100 grams). Then the solution is left for a couple of hours to infuse. After that, you can start spraying potatoes.
3. For the third preparation, you will need dry mustard (about one kilogram). It is dissolved in a bucket of water and 100 ml of vinegar is added there. Mustard fights well with the Colorado potato beetle in the beds with potatoes.

In addition, ordinary cement can be used for these purposes. It is very easy to use, you do not need to mix with anything and dissolve in anything. The required amount of cement is poured into gauze and the potato bushes are sprinkled with the substance.

Also, many gardeners use ashes to fight the Colorado potato beetle. There are several options for how it can be applied:

1. 10 kg of wood ash is dissolved in 1 liters of water. The mixture is put on fire and brought to a boil. Then the solution is left to cool completely in a warm room. There he must stand for at least 2 days. After that, the mixture is filtered and 40 grams of laundry soap are added. Another 10 liters of water is poured into this solution. Now you can start spraying potato plantations from the Colorado potato beetle.
2. Some gardeners simply add a little ash to the hole when they plant potatoes. Immediately before hilling the bushes, it is necessary to sprinkle the soil around the potatoes with ash.
3. In addition to the soil, the bushes themselves can also be sprinkled with ash. Birch ash is best suited for these purposes. She pollinates potatoes every 2 weeks. The procedure should be repeated three times.

In the same way, you can pollinate potato bushes with red pepper or tobacco dust. Insects really do not like such substances, so they will quickly disappear from your site. As you can see, it is not necessary to spray to fight the Colorado potato beetle. There are no less effective, but very simple methods.

Collection of beetles with a special device

A practical device for collecting bugs and larvae can be made from a regular sugar bag. The first step is to make a cut along the seam on the side. The upper hole, on the contrary, should be sewn up. Now loops are made around the entire edge of the hole. They pass a thin wire, the length of which is from 2,5 to 3 meters. The wire is then bent and the ends twisted into a handle shape.

It is very easy to use this device. The bag is put on a potato bush and shaken a little. All the bugs that are on it just fall into the net. After each passed row of potatoes, you should pour the beetles into a bucket. Thus, you do not need to constantly carry the container with you and manually shake each bug into it.

Vodka from bugs

To carry out such a procedure, you should purchase vodka. Moreover, the worse its quality, the better the result will be. So you can safely choose the cheapest singed vodka. It is poured into a small jar and 10 beetles collected in different parts of the garden are thrown into it.

Then the beetles are released back to the area with potatoes. Oddly enough, but after that all pests leave the garden. The fact is that alcohol is a poison for insects. Colorado beetles just go crazy after consuming this amount of stuff. Releasing insects to their original place is necessary in order to scare the rest of the bugs. Despite the strangeness of this method, it really works.

Prevention of Colorado beetles

For prevention, you can plant some types of plants on the site that the beetles simply do not tolerate. Suitable for this:

• calendula or marigold. Seeds are sown around the plot or between rows;
• beans and beans. These plants are planted together with potatoes in one hole. This increases the level of nitrogen in the soil, which repels pests;
• garlic (spring). It has a pungent odor that beetles simply cannot stand.

It is also necessary to watch when the bugs begin to lay eggs. During this period, it is necessary to carry out the hilling of the bushes. Thus, the plants will receive the necessary amount of oxygen, which will help fight eggs and small larvae.

It is very good to loosen the soil often. At a certain period, the larvae burrow into the ground in order to form a cocoon and turn into an adult beetle. At this stage, the larvae are very sensitive and defenseless. Even the usual loosening of the soil in a potato bed can destroy a large number of bugs.

Conclusion

This article has shown that the protection of potatoes from beetles does not have to be carried out with chemical preparations. For this, proven folk methods are perfect. For example, you can prepare a mustard, soap or vinegar solution. Also, many gardeners use the manual method of collecting insects. To do this, you can build special devices. In general, there are quite a few methods for processing potatoes from the Colorado potato beetle. Each gardener can independently choose and check any of them.